Arrest of S. Sudan’s popular singer sparks public outcry

March 18, 2021 (JUBA) – The arrest on Wednesday on a popular singer in South Sudan has sparked public outcry, amid fears the act could cause protests from citizens across the country.

Larson Angok was arrested by members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on his way to a hotel in the Western Bahr el Ghazal state capital, Wau.

The motive behind the arrest of the singer remains unknown.

A family member, who spoke to Sudan Tribune on Thursday, said they reached the popular singer, but could hardly speak.

“You know when arrested, you are not free and cannot therefore speak freely because your abductors are next to you. They may use what you have said while in detention as the reason for arresting you. But generally, he is okay. He told me he is safe and being held by Criminal Investigation Department in Wau”, said a brother.

He said those who arrested Angok do not know the crime committed.

“They [CID] told us that they acted on directives coming from Juba. They asked them to monitor his movement, track him down to know where he eats, sleeps, who chats with him and where, arrest him and take him back to Juba,” noted the brother.

“This is what we were told. Maybe we will know when he is taken to Juba”, he added.

Sources have, however, attributed Angok’s arrest to a recent petition in which the singer protested against the plight of the country’s national army as well as continued delay in payments of civil servants, despite the continued production and sale of the country’s oil resources.

The singer had earlier composed and released a song in which he castigated and painted the leadership of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as a political organization “quick to embrace political converts and dump own cadres”.

The song was widely circulated on various social media channels.

(ST)